Conveying mechanism



April 16, 1929. P. w. SHIELDS CONVEYING MECHANISM Filed April 50, 1927 Patented Apr. 16, 1929.

UNITE rem OFFICILA PATRICK W. SHIELDS, OF PTT'J'.SB'U'RGHI, PENNSYLVANIA ASSI GNOR TO MQKENNA i BRASS & MANUFACTURING COMPANY,

IEORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

or PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A' con- CONVEYING MECHANIS a nc tmn filed April 30,

This invention relates to conveying mechanism and is particularly useful for the conveying of containers. It is herein described in connection with the feeding of bottles to a bottling machine, although it has numerone other applications.

Most bottle feeding machines are open to the objection that if the bottles are crowded there is a constant tendency for the leading bottle to topple over. Various means for preventing this have been attempted, and these have been generally open to the objection that they are complicated and are not always certain in their operation.

I provide a simple means for preventing undue crowding of bottles. I provide a path for the bottles, with means urging the'bottles therealong. This may constitutes. supporting conveyor arranged with side guises, the bottles being placed on the conveyor and carried therealong until they are stopped by preceding bottles, at which time the conveyor simply slides under the bottle, urging it forward. I provide a stop means adapted to be moved into or out of thepath and means adapted to be engaged by a bottle in the train and effective for moving the stop means into the path. Preferably the above means are embodied in a lever of the first class lying alongside the conveyor, the lever having an arm so shaped as to act as a stop for the bot tles when it is moved into the path thereof, the other arm'lying above the conveyor, but further alon in the path of the bottles, and adaptedto be moved outwardly when the bottles becomes crowded on the conveyor.

This last arm is preferably the longer.

The arrangement is of value in any bottle feeding mechamsm, but is particularly useful where it is'desired to divide the row of bottles intotwo separate streams. Tnelongarm is found in practice to be effective for urging alternate bottles to the side of the conveyor and thus effecting a separation of the bottles into two separate paths. It is therefore 7 an extremely simple mechanism which may be used for feeding, say a two head bottle filling machine from a single line of bottles. f I

In theac companyin'g drawings illustrat ing the present preferred embodiment of m invention as applied to a two head bottle fil in g machine,

Figure 1 1s atop plan view of a conveyor 1927. Serial in). 187,832.

I and feeding mechanism for the bottling ma chine, and

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken onfthe line IIII of Figure 1.

In the illustrated embodiment of the inchanged. It is desired to maintain the guides 5 and 6 a' distance apart which is materially greater than the diameter of the bottles. The

lines at B.

As a train ofbo'ttles is fed forward, the

leading bottle engages the curved end 8 of a lever arm 9. The lever is pivotally mounted, as indicated at 10 in FlgUTCQ,

very freely.

Assuming for a moment that the bottlesare to be fed in a straight line along theconveyor 2, and that the side guidesare so placed as to permit only this movement'," it will be seen that when'the leading bottle engages the curved arm 8, the short arm 11 of the lever'will' be swung inwardly toward the diameter of a bottle is indicated in dotted.

so as to swing" path of theyon-coming bottles. Thepartsare so proportioned, and the guide 6 is so placed,

that if there is no substantial resistance tothe forward travel of the bottles, the lever 9 will not interrupt their travel. This is be: cause of the factthat the space between the conveyor guides 5 and 6 is materially greater than the diameter of a bottle, and, therefore, the arm 8 may beswung from thepositlon shown in Figure l to such an extent that the bottles are freeto passitif they lie toward the opposite side of the conveyor, and at the same tune not force the arm 11 inwardly to such a distance that the forward motion of the train'of bottles is interrupted.

1 Now assume that the leadingbottle is moved past the arm 8' and is then stopped. The con veyor continues to urge the bottlesfrom left to right, as viewed in the drawings, and this;

resultsintheirassuming a staggered relation on the conveyor, as shown in dotted lines at the left hand side of Figurel. This stagger;

ing of the bottles for the entire length of the conveyor is due to; the bottles sliding. upon one another. At least one bottle will be forced against thejarm 8 and will cause it to swing outwardly to such an extent that the inclined face12 of the arm 'll'blocks the train of bottles and prevents any further This blocking persists forward movement. until the load on the arm 8 is relieved. This may be done by continued feeding of bottles in advance of the inclined face 12 to the bottlefilling machine. The relatively short line of bottles between the inclined face 12 and the filling machine proper will not seriously effect the operation of the bottlefeedmeans. As thefilling machine continues to use up bottles, the sidewise pressure on the arm Swill be relieved. The bottles lying ahead of the inclined face 12 will be fed 7 forward and then thepressure ofthe blocked line of bottles on the inclined face 12 will cause the arm 11 to move outwardly and permit thetrain of-bottles to again move for-- ward. This operation will be repeated automatically whenever,conditions require it.

Now referringin more detail to the Figure 1, it will be notedthat the guide 6 terminates alongside a casting'13 having a guiding face 14 which is substantially a continuation of the guide 6. It is provided with an offset portion 14:" on the casting 1'3 and a flange 16 on a casting 17. The path P is defined by a flange 16 on the casting 17, and a flange 18 on a casting 19. The flange 18 extends to a flange 20 .on a casting 21 which, with the flange 16,

' defines a second path for the bottles. v two paths lead to different filling heads (not The shown).

In operation it is desired to supply bottles to both the path P and the path P from the conveyor 2. The conveyor is run at such speed that there is a tendency to supply more bottles thanthe filling machine heads can handle. As a result, the channels between the V flanges 14? and 16 and the flanges 16 and 18,

will be constantly filled with bottles, these trains of bottles moving forward intermittently when the bottles are taken by the filling heads. This crowding is so pronounced adjacent the arm 8 that the inclined face 12 is almost constantly in engagement with the train of bottles on the conveyor 2. It is found in practice that when a bottle fillinghead takes a bottle from the path P or the path P the bottles move forward, and ifa bottleis to go to the path P it will be taken from a spot corresponding somewhat to the spot X, on Figure 1. As the next bottlemoves along the conveyor '2, the pressure of bottles on the inclined face 12 will urge the bottle crosswise of the conveyor to a point corresponding somewhat to the spot X thus leaving it in position to be fed along the path P If a bot-' V tle is taken from the train lying'in the path P the remaining bottles in the path will be moved forward, thus leaving a vacant space at a point corresponding somewhat to the spot X in Figure 1.. It will be understood that at this time there will be a bottle at the point X Because of this fact, the, arm 8 will be pushed out of the way and despite the pressure on the inclined face 12, the next bottle in the train will be fed to the spot X In operation, alternate bottles will be-supplied to the points X and X with great regularity and with no tendency for the bottles to tip over. It is found that the operation is aided by the provision of a separating roller 22 supported on the casting 17 in the position shown. 7

I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, but it will be understood that it is not limited to this form alone, as it may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following.

claims.

1.'A conveying mechanism comprising a path for articles to be conveyed, means urging a train of articles therealong, stop means adapted to be moved into or out of the path and means adapted to be engaged by an article in the train and effective by such engagement'for moving the stop means into the path.

2. A conveying mechanism comprising a patch for articles, means for urging a train i of articles therealong, a pivoted arm alongf side the path and adapted to be moved into or out of the path so as to check or release the train of articles, and means adapted to'be engaged by an article in the train'and effective by such engagement for moving the pivoted arm into the path. r i

3. A. conveying mechanism comprising a path for articles, means for urging a train of articles therealong, and a lever lying alongside the path and having a short arm and a long arm, the short arm being shaped to blockthe train of articles when it is moved into the path, and the long arm being shaped to cause movement of the short arm into the path upon 1 undue crowding of articles on the path.

4. A conveying mechanism comprising a path for articles, means for urging a train of articles therealong, and a lever lying alongside the path and having a short arm and .along arm, the short arm being shaped to block the train of articles when it is moved into the path, and the long arm being shaped to cause movement of the short arm into the path upon undue crowding of articles on the path, the lever being so positioned that the long arm lies further along the path than does the short arm.

' ment with the articles.

5. Conveyor mechanism for articles of substantially uniform size, comprising a path of I greater width than the articles, means urging a train of articles along the path, stop means adapted to be moved into the path so as to check the advancing train and means lying alongside the path and adapted to be actuated by crowding of the articles sidewise in the path, said means being effective'for actuating the stop means.

6. Conveyor mechanism for articles of substantially uniform size, comprising a conveyor adapted to support the articles, but permitting relative slide mavement between the 'articles and the conveyor, side guides restrains ing sidewise movement of the articles on the conveyor, the guides being spaced a distance greater than the width of the articles, a pivoted arm lying alongside the conveyor, the arm being adapted to move into or out of the path of the articles and check movement thereof, and means actuated by sidewise crowding of the articles in the train for moving the pivoted arm into engagement with the articles.

7. Conveyor mechanism for articles of substantially uniform size, comprising a, lever pivoted alongside the conveyor, the lever having .a short arm shaped to engage advancing articles so as to block their movement, the

lever also having a long arm adapted to be moved upon sidewise crowding of articles on the conveyor and effective upon such movement for moving the short arm into engage- 8. Conveyor mechanism comprising a conveyor adapted to support artlcles, but of a side guides defining the path of the articles on the conveyor, and a lever pivoted alongslde the conveyor, the lever havmg ajshort arm and a long arm, the arms being so posi-' tioned that the short arm will be engaged first in point of time by an article moving along w I the conveyor, the short arm being shaped to block advancing articles, the long arm being shaped to engage articles crowded sidewise on the conveyor.

9. Conveyor mechanism comprising a conveyor adapted tosupport articles, but of a character permitting relative sliding movement between the conveyor and the articles, side guides defining the path of the articles on the conveyor, and a lever pivoted alongside the conveyor, the lever having a short arm and a long arm, the arms being so positioned that the short arm will be engaged first in point of time by an article moving along the conveyor, the short arm presenting an inclined face to advancing articles effective for blocking the progress of suchv articles, the long arm being so shaped as to cause the inclined face to swing into engagement with the v articles when the long arm is engaged by articles crowded sldewise on the conveyor, the 1ncl1nat1on of the face on the shortarm being such that the articles will cause the short arm to swing outwardly when pressure on the long arm is lessened. Y

In testimony whereof'I have hereuntoset 

